Reed College Top Questions

It depends. Some people do fall under those categories, but most people are pretty laid-back about it. There is a lot of recreational drug use on campus, but not to the point where I'd consider most Reedies druggies. We are pretty liberal (as most college students are) but honestly we're pretty laid back about that too. We just believe what we believe and do what we think we ought to do. Doesn't everyone?

To a certain extent- Reedies are definitely smart and creative and Reed is quite liberal, but although there is a fair amount of drug use I don't think there is much more than you would find on any college campus. (And some people are completely sub-free.) Definitely if you are a hard core user you will not be able to keep up with the workload. And there is a lot of weird stuff that happens on campus, but it's fun and interesting!

To a minor degree... to the degree that any stereotypes accurately represent the group they over-generalize. People work hard and are passionate about what they do and Reed is a beautiful community which probably has something to do with who is part of the community, so I'm not complaining. Reed and the surrounding area is very caucasian. Not exclusively, but overwhelmingly.

not entirely (thank god!) . . . but not coming out of nowhere either. :-) even if a lot of students *do* fit this stereotype, thankfully we're not a homogeneous group. and once you look past the surface, there's more going on.

depends who your talking to, that is, no.

Yes, we can most likely go on to the grad schools of our choice. The academic demands at Reed, especially the thesis process, are excellent preparation for grad-level work. Pretension depends on the individual. Most of us are down to earth, but have excellent vocabularies, which may be confused as pretension. We are also reasonably proud of the hard work we spend days in the library at a time to accomplish. That being said: work hard, play hard. However, the people who play too hard don't last very long. Are there more hard drugs on this campus than you might expect to find at a college of this size? Probably. But the problem is far from rampant; most of the serious debauchery is reserved for Renn Fayre. Suicidal depression, minor strokes, and mental breaks have happened, yes. These are arguably pre-existing conditions.

To some degree - but you see these same stereotypes everywhere. The student body at Reed is pretty unusual, it's the perfect place for a lot of people who feel like they've never fit in. Granted Reed is perhaps one of the few places where you can be celebrated for your geekiness - which is awesome, I think.

Well, there are a lot of snotty, pretentious assholes, but I only quoted Derrida twice last week.

i don't think there is any more drug use at reed than at any other small liberal arts college, we're just more open about it. when i was a freshman i was amazed to see people do things like smoke pot out in the open instead of hidden away behind a locked door. also, people don't really get into trouble when they are caught with small quantities of drugs. they may get warned, or get a beer dumped out, but there aren't really punishments for small amounts of drug use, which i think is a good thing, even if it contributes to a our reputation as a druggie school. as for the hippie reputation, i think we have more hipsters than hippies. there isn't really a defining archetype that represents our student body.

Pretty much.